Prairie IT brings "clouds" to the Eastern Plains

New tech company benefits from Haxtun location

Could Haxtun be on its way to becoming the Silicon Valley of the Eastern Plains?

Maybe not. But for residents Mark Oman and his son Adam, the town might provide the perfect background for a company that might otherwise belong there.

The father/son duo have been building a new business called Prairie IT: a virtual computing company that brings users the newest software through the cloud. That means that, despite the age of a computer or where it runs, it can use the most up-to-date software around by simply having the company's technology installed.

Focus the business's efforts on schools - where it might be cheaper to buy into a system that updates itself than to purchase new computers -and seven to eight months later, they have a successful business.

"We always talked about doing this, but we made it a reality," Mark said. "We had high expectations from the start, but we exceeded that."

The company's founder worked at Agilent Technologies, a spinoff of HP in Fort Collins, for 37 years before deciding to retire and move back to the town where he went to school. But for the last seven years of his experience there, he lived the virtual life. He commuted to California four days per week, working with international teams in virtual offices.

Adam, on the other hand, spent the prior 12 years working with a nonprofit in Cleveland, Nashville and Los Angeles as an "expert on virtualization."

Mark tried the retired life, but got bored.

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Instead he started Prairie IT, opening an office in Haxtun where he bases the company's operations. But other than providing a physical spot to meet with local clients, the office offers more of a physical representation of a company that spreads its network across the state. The company employs five people: one who works in Haxtun, another in Holyoke, a third in Akron, a fourth in Fort Collins and a fifth (engineer) who works internationally.

The company's data center is in Louisville, about 160 miles away.

Still, Mark said the company's location has been a big boon for his business. Aside from the fact that he and Adam enjoy living there, their company has benefited from the lower costs of working from such a rural part of the state. They can offer their services for cheaper prices, and because their software is online, much of their work doesn't involve travel.

The atmosphere also attracts employees who like to work with technology, but prefer living in smaller towns. It's a mix of new-age, fast-paced jobs and a laid back, slower pace of life that also applies to the company itself, in Mark's opinion.

"It's interesting. In some ways, we're very leading edge in what we do, where people are computing ... online," he said. "Wait a minute. They had centralized computing decades ago. It's a very proven technology of using centralized data ... with very new, high tech equipment.

"It's quite cool how it works. It's not a scary thing."

So not scary, in fact, that the company sees itself doubling to between 10 and 12 employees in the near future, while broadening growth in Haxtun itself. And while the focus will remain on providing technology to schools and educators, Mark can see the company expanding in other areas, as well. That, in turn, could bring other tech companies to the area.

Whether it expands east or west, the Haxtun community, he added, also has a lot to do with the company's present and future success. When Prairie IT started, he said many didn't know what to expect. A handful of people have stopped by the company, for example, thinking that they also help repair computers.

But at the same time, he said the overall response has been "fantastic."

"There's more support to bring jobs to the area. It's just something positive," he explained. "We have lofty dreams of where to go. The solutions and benefits could be anywhere."

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